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Hayfield Support Services Ltd Contacts with other Stakeholders
Basis Hayfield accepts initial enquiries about service provision for deaf individuals from any source. However, since the funding of all services are fully dependant on the payment of residential and/or day care fees, all formal referrals have to be made through the individual services user’s Local Authority Social Work/ Social Service Department (hereafter referred to as the Referring Authority). The Referring Authority retains primacy in terms of care planning and management.
Responsibilities At the time of initial, formal referral, the Referring Authority is required to arrange for the completion and submission of the Hayfield Application Pack, which is a three-part document which serves to provide background information on the potential service user, and a commitment by the Referring Authority to fund and monitor the services offered by Hayfield. (Copies of the Application Pack can be obtained from the website, www.hayfield.org.uk). Hayfield expect that any formal referral will have been preceded by an initial assessment and care planning exercise by the appropriate Referring Authority and that copies of all relevant documents, including Care Plans, Psychiatric Reports, Educational Assessments, etc, will be provided in addition to the standard Application Pack. At the point of initial referral, Hayfield also welcomes the involvement and input of any other individual or agency, such as families and carers, advocates, or other providers, who can add to the full understanding of the individual service user’s circumstances and needs. Once a placement at Hayfield has been agreed and undertaken, arrangements will be made for a review of the placement to be made following an initial six-week assessment period. Hayfield use this initial period as an opportunity to seek expansion or clarification of any information received, from any source, prior to the placement starting. All appropriate individuals or agencies will have an opportunity to attend and to contribute to the initial Assessment Review, (usually during week six), at which time decisions will be made as to whether Hayfield is an appropriate facility to meet the service user’s needs, and, if so, to formulate an on-going care plan. Once a placement at Hayfield has been agreed and established, it is expected that existing contacts with relevant stakeholders, such as care managers, relatives/carers, advocates, etc will be maintained wherever possible. However, it is recognised that since Hayfield is a UK-wide resource, maintaining previous links may present some difficulties. Hayfield therefore accepts that there will be occasions when regular contact with previous stakeholders may be curtailed and may have to be replaced by local alternatives. At the most formal level, the primacy of the Referring Authority means that Hayfield has a responsibility to inform the individual service user’s care manager of any significant incidents or developments in the service user’s circumstances. Correspondingly, Hayfield expect that the Referring Authority will accept ongoing responsibility to monitor, maintain and fund the service user’s placement in an appropriate and professional manner. Hayfield also accept responsibility to act on behalf of individual service users to maintain contact with relatives, carers and others, as the service user may require. As outlined in other policy documents, Hayfield operates a system of individual care planning, which includes twice-yearly Reviews, to which Referring Authorities, relatives/carers, advocates and other interested parties are able to participate and contribute.
Special Arrangements Because of the particular needs of Hayfield service users, especially with regards to communication difficulties and overall lack of access to mainstream services, Hayfield has developed distinctive links with a number of local services (e.g. Community Mental Health Teams, GP/dental practices, colleges, work experience providers, leisure facilities, etc), whereby Hayfield has been able to provide basic Deaf Awareness training, communication support and individual assistance, so that services user are able to access a whole range of services that would otherwise be difficult or inaccessible to them. It is also acknowledged that because of the fact that many Referring Authorities are quite geographically distant from Glasgow, there are associated problems with day-to-day care management, or even regular attendance at Review meetings. Precedents have therefore been set, in particular circumstances, for Glasgow City Council Social Work Department to take on overall care management responsibilities for certain services users (although the Referring Authorities retain overall responsibility and continue to fund the placements). Such arrangements are negotiated directly between the Referring Authorities and Glasgow City Council. Hayfield continues to monitor all organisational relationships with other stakeholders and is prepared to amend or develop these as circumstances dictate.
April, 2008
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